Andy Reid: The longer the lockout, the worse the quality of play

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 18, 2011, 1:09 PM EDT

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Eagles coach Andy Reid has acknowledged something that everyone in the NFL has to be thinking but not many on the management side will want to admit: If the lockout lasts long enough to cut into training camps, the quality of play whenever the regular season starts will be sub-par.

“The further it goes in [to preparation], the worse the product,” Reid said on Comcast SportsNet, via Philly.com. “No matter how you cut this thing, you need time, in practice. . . . You’re bringing in guys who are working hard in the offseason on their own, but that’s not like working hard in training camp.”

The lockout has already lasted long enough to cancel some of the offseason preparation players would ordinarily do, and there’s no getting that back. And the lockout may be far from over.

So now that Reid has acknowledged that less preparation time means an inferior product, maybe the Eagles should offer fans a discount on tickets.

Manning even said it himself last year that they need these work outs because he wouldn’t get a chance to pass to some of the guys who came in and played while they were rittled with injuries last year. So there was very little adjustments when the pack up or practice squad came in.

Good for Reid to be the one to speak out and say what all thinking fans have been saying for awhile. Some fans think that as long as they don’t miss any games none of this really matters. I think the owners have fooled themselves into believing this too (maybe the players as well) and when its all over they still expect their coaches to go out there and field a team that’s capable of winning game and pleasing the fans.

I’ve been saying for awhile they don’t have to miss games for me to lose interest in this season. I watch the NFL because its the best of the best facing each other. If they want to cheapen the product by cutting down on the prep time so the coaches can’t game plan properly and their schemes are inferior because they couldn’t teach them to the players my interest decreases dramatically.

For all the smart asses out there you may notice that no one else has said this. Yeah its obvious but I don’t see any coverage specifically mentioning this fact. Maybe they’re afraid to anger the all mighty NFL by pointing out the flaw in everyone going back once all this is done like nothing’s happened. The coaches are getting F’d over in this whole thing. Some teams cutting their pay yet still expecting them to run the draft and prepare for FA and a season that my never happen. Plus they have to win when the games start because their jobs are still on the line.

Let’s see how many more “Captain Obvious” statements we can get on here in addition to the ever original “Andy Reid is Fat” jokes (let’s save the quotes about stating the obvious for those MENSA candidates).

Now all we need is some clever quip about him being “Father of the Year” again.

sjhaack says:
May 18, 2011 1:21 PM
Why should the players be penalized for being legally barred from team preparation for the season
___________________________________________________________________ becasue they (probably you are one of them) hired DE Smith and he is the biggest douche bag to show his face around the NFL. If you get someone in there to represent you that gives a crap about football this could have been worked out by now.

Not only will the quality of play suffer but I would think that there would be a lot more injuries also. Especially of the hamstring and groin variety. These type of injuries might sound a little harmless but they can keep a player sidelined for weeks at a time.

It’s not as if Andy Reid told the world he’d be speaking at 1 pm on live television, came out and announced, “LESS TIME TO PLAY MEANS A WORSE PRODUCT!” and walked off stage. these guys at PFT just took a sentence or two from a whole interview and made a “story” out of it

It is the lockout that is directly causing this problem – not the players. Many fans seem to overlook that the players are not on strike – they are locked out in an effort to force them to accept a CBA settlement on the owners terms instead of a negotiated settlement. All these pro-owner shills also overlook the fact that the premise for any CBA is a long term agreement without an opt-out clause. That means that no short-term bandaide can be proposed. It has to be a long term agreement that lasts for at least 8 years ( what I have heard proposed). If the owners’ strategy for the past two years had not been a forced lockout, the players union would not have decertified. Had the owners promised not to lockout while negotiating a new CBA – and continued to operate under the 2010 rules – the union would have had no motivation to decerify. Decertification was a legal strategy to defend against a lockout, right? As a result of the lockout, the quality of play in 2011 – if there is a season – will suffer. There might also be a significant increase in injuries. This will all impact the players directly, not the owners.

It has been noted previously that this labor impasse is primarily ‘ rich old white dudes’ versus a predominantly black workforce; Roger Goodell vs. De Smith. Anyone who doesn’t think this is a battle with racial overtones is kidding themselves.

The longer the lockout, the fatter Andy Reid will get. They’ll have to wheel him back and forth on the sidelines in one of those mobile stretchers they carry injured players off in soon. The players don’t douse Reid in Gatorade after wins because really- who would want to see that wet?

m4hogie says:
May 18, 2011 1:39 PM
After the 2 sides finally settle, I hope the fans pull their own lock out and boycott the games. Let them play in empty stadiums. Then maybe the 2 sides will figure out who is more important.

Amen brotha Amen…at some point we the fans have to show we are a factor in the billion dollar industry and can’t just be ignored…I have not and will not buy any NFL/Team product as long as this goes on and then sometime after it’s over…

TurdSandwich says:
May 18, 2011 1:42 PM
The worst part of PFT – the comments. If there was a simple IQ test required to reply, 99% of this hate-filled jazz would cease.
Thumbs up to esg6string

….says the guy who named himself “turdsandwich” way to separate yourself from the 99%. as far as what esg6string said.. it’s not profound either… its common sense that no practice will effect the quality of play.

““The further it goes in [to preparation], the worse the product,” Reid said on Comcast SportsNet, via Philly.com. “No matter how you cut this thing, you need time, in practice. . . . You’re bringing in guys who are working hard in the offseason on their own, but that’s not like working hard in training camp.”’

Well, I’m glad someone outside of the sports media have some common sense cause I posted a similiar concern yesterday.

But we all know that in the land of make believe called the sports media, these spoilt writers, journalists, and analysts, would expect 100% quality work of work from the athletes on the field even if the lock-out ended two weeks before the start of the pre-season. And they would brainwash their sheeplings fans into believing that their fantasy should be reality.

And as usual, everything always seems to come back to money and these athletes. Amazing how not one of these folks in the sports media are to bent out of shape over how much the owners are making. I guess cause they feel that by defending the owners some of that wealth can trickle down on them.

Not only will the product on the field be inferior, the longer the lockout goes, but there will be more injuries, since the players will not be in top football shape. That will even add to the inferior product on the field.

Regardless of what you think about Reid’s coaching ability, both sides would do well to heed his words here. Andy Reid is a “company guy”, who much to the consternation of the Philly media and talk radio likes to keep things close to vest, and isn’t really known to pop off. It’s pretty out of character for him to be this direct, so I think there’s some real concern here.

So what if the quality of play suffers. This is a bunch of grown adults who can’t agree how to split up over $9B annually. And watching it get to the point it currently is shows that there is HUMONGOUS GREED on both sides. The funniest part is the UNION is to blame for all of this for suckering the players with the Kool Aid. This is Scott Boras telling Johnny Damon how much he’s worth to the Yankees all over again. How did that turn out for Johnny?

m4hogie says:
May 18, 2011 1:39 PM
After the 2 sides finally settle, I hope the fans pull their own lock out and boycott the games. Let them play in empty stadiums. Then maybe the 2 sides will figure out who is more important.

Amen brotha Amen…at some point we the fans have to show we are a factor in the billion dollar industry and can’t just be ignored…I have not and will not buy any NFL/Team product as long as this goes on and then sometime after it’s over…

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Keep dreamin’, boys. The NFL knows that as soon as they put the next game on tv, we’re on the edge of our seats, waiting to watch. The fans don’t factor into this at all, from their perspective.

Wow…….a guy states a fact and gets called captain obvious 50 times an the fat jokes start rolling in. I wish I felt the need to downgrade people to feel better about myself so I could chime in with a joke. Jerks